Career Advisor

Location: Remote, Southern California

About Us

Propel America addresses a broken workforce system that fails both young adults and healthcare employers, sidelining talented individuals from entering healthcare careers and contributing to critical workforce shortages that threaten community health. Propel’s work centers on bridging this gap by creating alternative, debt-free career pathways into healthcare for young adults ages 18–26, particularly those from underrepresented and low-income backgrounds, while helping employers access the trained, diverse talent they urgently need. Today, over 13 million young adults in the U.S. are either not in school, not working, or stuck in low-wage jobs with little room for growth. Traditional college remains financially and logistically out of reach for many, especially young people from low-income communities, forcing them into a false choice: sacrifice income to pursue an expensive degree or remain in low-wage work without upward mobility. At the same time, systemic barriers, such as limited exposure to healthcare roles, low visibility of alternative pathways, and a lack of representative mentors, prevent many high school graduates from entering the healthcare field.

Meanwhile, healthcare employers face compounding workforce shortages. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 13% growth in healthcare jobs from 2021 to 2031, translating to nearly 2 million openings annually. Many of these are middle-skill roles, which represent over half the U.S. labor market but remain unfilled due to a lack of training infrastructure. Employers often contend with high turnover in entry-level positions yet underinvest in structured career advancement pathways or innovative strategies to retain talent.

Propel America aims to solve both sides of the equation, by equipping young adults with the skills and support to launch healthcare careers and by helping employers build stronger, more diverse, and more stable workforces. In our portfolio, we offer a suite of Propel Paths and Propel Products to place young adults in critical talent gaps in healthcare.

The Opportunity

The Career Advisor serves as the primary relationship manager for Propel Fellows throughout their career journey, providing career coaching, facilitating professional development, supporting apprenticeship participants, and partnering directly with employers to ensure successful employment outcomes.

Reporting to the Account Manager, the Career Advisor manages a unified caseload of approximately 60-75 Fellows across Propel's Traditional Training Employment (TTE) and Registered Apprenticeship pathways. As the single point of contact for Fellows, this role blends one-on-one coaching, group facilitation, employer coordination, and career advising to help Fellows persist, complete training, secure employment, and succeed in their careers.

For this position, we are particularly seeking a candidate who brings firsthand clinical experience as a Medical Assistant (MA), MA Supervisor, or Clinic Manager, along with Spanish-language proficiency. This combination will strengthen our ability to provide healthcare-informed career coaching, help Fellows navigate clinical workplace expectations, and deliver individualized support to Spanish-speaking Fellows. The ideal candidate can translate their clinical experience into practical guidance that prepares Fellows to succeed in healthcare environments.

Success in this role means Fellows are prepared, employed, retained, and advancing in healthcare careers while employers experience Propel as a responsive, high-quality workforce partner and talent solution.

Key Responsibilities

The Career Advisor is responsible for four major areas of work:

• Career Coaching & Case Management
• Professional Development Facilitation
• Fellow Employment Success
• Data, Collaboration & Continuous Improvement

45% Career Coaching & Caseload Management

Manage a caseload of approximately 60-75 Fellows across all Propel offerings: Train To Earn(TTE), and Registered Apprenticeship (RAP), and Propel Coach.

Responsibilities include:

• By applying trauma-informed and strengths-based coaching practices, serve as the primary coach and advisor throughout each Fellow's Propel journey.
• Deliver individualized coaching focused on career readiness, persistence, workplace success, and long-term career advancement.
• Develop individualized career success plans based on each Fellow's goals, strengths, and barriers.
• For TTE Fellows, facilitate collection of all necessary externship requirements.
• For apprenticeship Fellows, ensure Fellows are progressing as planned - achieving On-the-Job Training and Registered-Training-Instruction hours - and that they are submitting and tracking hours via ApprentiScope.
• Monitor Fellow engagement, training progress, credential completion, and employment readiness and track in Salesforce.
• Hold Fellows accountable to achieving Hire Ready Milestones, focused on high-levels of professionalism.
• Connect Fellows to internal and community resources when additional support is needed.
• Provide proactive interventions to improve persistence and completion across the team.
• Leverage firsthand clinical experience to coach Fellows on healthcare workplace expectations, patient interactions, clinical team dynamics, professionalism, and strategies for successfully transitioning into Medical Assistant and other healthcare roles.
• Provide individualized career coaching and support in English and Spanish, as appropriate, to strengthen Fellow engagement, understanding, and readiness.

25% Professional Development & Employability Skills

Facilitate and deliver high-quality learning experiences that prepare Fellows for successful careers.

Responsibilities include:

• Create engaging, inclusive, and culturally responsive virtual and in-person learning environments, to deliver Propel's professional development curriculum.
• Facilitate sessions focused on communication, professionalism, teamwork, interviewing, customer service, workplace expectations, career navigation, and other hire ready skills.
• Assess Fellow mastery of employability competencies and “hire readiness”; provide additional support, where needed.
• Reinforce learning through individual coaching conversations.
• Partner with Solutions team to provide feedback that strengthens curriculum over time.
• Support Fellows with Portal engagement, ensuring they regularly access and review Training partner grades, attendance, and Propel-specific assignments/assessments.
• Incorporate real-world clinical examples and experiences into professional development sessions, helping Fellows connect employability skills to the expectations and realities of working in healthcare settings.

20% Employer Partnership & Employment Success

Partner directly with employers to support successful employment outcomes.

Responsibilities include:

• Coordinate with employer partners’ preceptors and Account Manager regarding Fellow readiness, onboarding, attendance, performance, and retention.
• Ensure successful transitions into employment and apprenticeship placements.
• Upon hire, monitor employment outcomes and proactively intervene when challenges arise.
• Partner closely with Account Managers to strengthen employer relationships via positive relationships with hiring managers and supervisors.
• Draw on clinical experience to support Fellows in navigating workplace expectations, communicating effectively with clinical supervisors, and addressing challenges that may arise during externships, onboarding, and employment.

10% Cross-Functional Collaboration & Continuous Improvement

Partner with Admissions & Pre-Fellowship Specialists to ensure smooth participant transitions into Propel programming.

Collaborate closely with Account Managers to support Fellow and employer success.

Ensure employer and Fellow communications are accurate and timely, aligned to program goals.

Maintain accurate Salesforce documentation and participant records.

Monitor data related to persistence, completion, hiring, and retention; a Coach is held accountable to these metrics, for their Fellows.

Share insights that improve participant experience and organizational performance.

Participate in team planning, calibration, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Serve as internal resources for solutions team to understand MA perspective.

Success Profile

A successful Career Advisor manages a coaching caseload while serving as the primary point of contact for Fellows from enrollment through employment.

This leader will:

• Effectively coach participants across multiple career pathways while adapting support to individual needs.
• Manage a caseload of approximately 60-75 Fellows while achieving strong persistence, completion, hiring, and retention outcomes.
• Deliver engaging professional development sessions that strengthen Fellows' employability and workplace readiness.
• Build productive relationships with employers and effectively resolve routine participant issues before escalation.
• Apply firsthand clinical experience as a Medical Assistant, MA Supervisor, or Clinic Manager to provide practical, healthcare-informed coaching that prepares Fellows to navigate clinical environments, meet employer expectations, and succeed in healthcare careers.
• Build trusting relationships with Fellows and provide effective, culturally responsive coaching and communication in both English and Spanish.
• Partner effectively with Admissions, Account Management, and Portfolio Management to create a seamless participant experience.

Performance Measures

Success in this role will be measured through outcomes, including:

• Fellow Success
• Persistence
• Training completion
• Credential attainment
• Employment placement
• Employment retention
• Fellow satisfaction
• Employer Success
• Hiring outcomes
• Employer satisfaction
• Retention of Propel hires
• Responsiveness to employer needs
• Coaching Excellence
• Caseload management
• Quality of coaching documentation
• Professional development facilitation
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Data accuracy

Preferred Qualifications

Passion for Propel's mission and advancing economic mobility.

3+ years of experience in career coaching, workforce development, advising, counseling, case management, or student success.

Prior hands-on clinical experience as a Medical Assistant (MA), MA Supervisor, or Clinic Manager strongly preferred.

Professional proficiency in both English and Spanish, including the ability to provide individual coaching, communicate expectations, and support Fellows in both languages, strongly preferred.

Strong understanding of healthcare career pathways preferred.

Experience working with employers or workforce development partners preferred.

Strong facilitation, coaching, communication, and relationship-building skills.

Experience using Salesforce, Zoom, Google Workspace, and learning platforms.

Ability to work evenings and travel within the assigned region.

Compensation

The salary for this position is between $63,600-$86,300 annually, depending on experience and location. Propel America offers a competitive total rewards package including coverage of 90% of health insurance premiums, unlimited PTO, and a flexible work environment.

Propel America is an equal-opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

We encourage candidates from historically underrepresented backgrounds to apply.